@icantgiveup
No, I don’t have any opinion about the OP’s question as whether Berkeley is worth OOS tuition. I just want to give a data point on this:
My D graduated Berkeley EECS after 3 years. She entered as a freshman and was granted 17 (I think) AP credits. She had taken many college-level physics & math courses at Stanford EPGY but did not use any of them to fulfill degree requirement at Berkeley.
There is no “3 yr. option” and you don’t have to ask anyone. Just take enough classes to graduate.
@Pentaprism Can you please elaborate, if we take more classes per quarter (regardless AP credits), is it not possible to graduate in 3 years ? Does that saves money or not ?
I don;t want to distract OP’s topic for this question, any other forum you can suggest me ?
It certainly sounds like you expect him to pay it back.
I don’t think Berkeley is worth PLUS loans and I wouldn’t encourage anyone to saddle their kids with that kind of debt. A company isn’t going to pay a Berkeley grad more than a grad from a less well known school.
I don’t think you are doing you or your son any favors by not encouraging him to strongly consider UF as opposed to Berkeley with large debt. A 17 or 18 year old needs guidance from adults/parents in terms of consequences of large debt.
@austinmshauri I agree, I see your point it does sounds like that. I said that just for context sake, as my S is not comfortable to take too much help otherwise. anyways how I manage loan is not important topic for our OP’s question.
@icantgiveup yes, you can graduate in 3 years without any AP credits.
First of all, one would overload each semester with 20 units instead of the normal 16, or even 13 in the first semester as they suggest. 20.5 is the max you can take without approval, but if you want to go for approval you can exceed that without further cost. So 20 x 6 semesters = 120, and that’s barely enough to graduate without summers. Above 13 credits for a semester is the same amount of money regardless if its 13 or 16 or 20 or 100. In reality, taking 20 units is really hard work since the classes are more than just lecture. There’s discussions and labs and with so many variables, it gets hard to fit things in without some planning.